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She’d understand She’d pour him a drink, listen, then kiss all his cares away

This hy he needed his wife back

A year ago, he’d never io, he had still been replaying that last argu to make sense of it

He’d been so exhausted at the tiht It had just made no sense Yes, he’d been late home and, yes, it hadn’t been the first time But he’d never understood what had made that time different

He’d apologised, as always And when she’d thrown it back at him, he’d reminded her of the truth

This hy she’d married him For his company For him to work hard, to build a new fa for his son

Just like his papà had worked for him and Noemi If he could do half the job his papà had, Frankie would be okay

It was just that being even half theup to that iy—and it didn’t leave a lot left over

That was so Maria hadn’t understood

But now, finally, they see each other at last Noas on the way to being the husband she needed

When he finally reached the chalet, most of the ere already dark He checked his watch—it was later than he’d thought God, this day had gone on for ever

Then he frowned The one light that still shone out into the night cahtyes It was his officeWhy was that room lit?

Letting hiate He had a bottle of whisky in the drawer there anyway—a result of reading too many bad detective novels as a child, Maria had always said—and there was no point turning on all the other lights in the large chalet just for a drink He could de-stress just as well in his office, then head to bed and see if Maria was feeling a woken up

Then he opened his office door and found his wife sitting in his chair, drinking his whisky, her feet resting on the desk beside a falittery flyer

Santa Frankie That was today

Seb stalled in the doorway, leaning heavily against the frame Oh, God ‘Maria, I—’

‘I don’t care,’ she snapped She swung her legs down fro her hands on either side of that flyer as she leaned forward ‘You promised to take your son to see Santa And obviously thatto hio without you, you realise? So he’s just been miserable here all day, despite all the ice cream Noemi and Max have fed him And then he cried himself to sleep when you still weren’t back from your oh-so-important business trip’

‘It was i a hand over his hair as he tried to find a way to salvage this He’d spent all day negotiating with idiots, and now he had to co with his wife

This was not how he’d i

God, it was happening all over again Just like last ti made any sense

‘Frankie is i for a s better But he didn’t have one

Finally, she shook her head and straightened up ‘Look, I’ht out today or we’d be gone already, but we’re booked on one at lunchtime tomorrow’

Wait What?

‘You’re leaving? You can’t! Youyou said you’d stay for Christmas’

‘And you said you’d put your family first for once over the holidays You said you’d prove that if I stayed, things would be different’

‘And they have been different!’ She’d adht She couldn’t take that back now, could she?

‘Right up until the point where you got me into bed, yes’ Maria’s expression turned hard ‘Was that what it was all about, in the end? You just wanted to prove you could have ain, and once you’d achieved that you didn’t need to try any more?’

‘No!’ How could she think that? Well, apart from the bit where he’d slept with her then run out on her and his obligations the next

How could he have been so stupid?

‘It was the contract, Maria Remember the clause you found—’

‘Look, it doesn’t hed ‘We tried, Seb We really did But I’ left behind while you chase after the adrenaline high of doing business And neither is Frankie I thought’